Resurgence of FreePhones (Free Payphones)

For this week’s positive news, technologists are serving their surrounding communities by building free-to-use voice over internet payphones—which we can call “FreePhones”.

Electrical engineer Patrick Schlott has installed three old-school payphones in rural Vermont. Schlott noticed that people often struggle to get reliable cellular service out in the country. After being inspired by an old handset he found in his garage, he decided to create his own company, RandTel, to support the local community—for free!

Schott’s FreePhones work by using POTS (plain old telephone service), which is then converted into digital signals using an adapter and broadcast over the internet, eventually reaching the destination phone number.

He was inspired by PhilTel, a Philadelphia-based company, and Futel in Portland, Oregon. These companies provide payphones for free without surveilling their users, aiming to support the unhoused who can be cut off from society without a telephone number. Some of these phones even use VPNs to further protect their users from surveillance.

A quote from Futel:

We do not judge the motivations of our users, or who they choose to call; if they don’t have someone to call, we can provide a presence on the other end. Denial of telephony services has long been a tactic used against undesirable populations, and our devices will counteract that. But more importantly, we will help to establish a new era of communication, one in which reaching out is not only desirable, but mandatory.

This movement to disassociate identities with phone numbers is one we’re closely aligned with at Take Back Our Tech and Above Phone. Although phone calls and texts can never be kept completely private, payphones allow you to separate your person from your communications.

One phone shared by many.

Similarly, Above’s internet phone number works by isolating your phone usage as much as possible. We don’t require any personal information to create the phone number, and the phone runs over the internet—meaning your phone calls aren’t associated with a local cell tower or a subscriber identity. Plus, you can have multiple phone numbers on the same device.

We’re aligned with Futel in making phone calls as private as humanly possible.

The locations of PhilTel and Futel’s phones are public—anyone who wants to make or receive a call can use them.

Do you want to operate a phone like this in your town? Check out PhilTel’s documentation: https://github.com/philtelco/philtel-docs

You’ll need an Analog Telephone Adapter and a VoIP provider. Then your adapter can connect to the internet via WiFi or Ethernet to make or receive calls. Using a VoIP provider typically costs about one penny per minute, making it cheap to operate.

These companies are assisting the public without judgement, wrenching open closed communications without asking for anything in return. Futel has made 15,000 calls in 2024, and I can see the other companies growing soon.

For those who believe in counter-economics, the free payphone could be a tool to uphold freedom from surveillance, as well as an important community hub.

Will you answer the call?

This is a segment from #TBOT Show Episode 10. Watch the full episode here!

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Any unlocked phone that supports eSIM can use the Above DataSIM!

Above DataSIM is data-only, so network traffic can be encrypted using a VPN. This prevents cell service providers and internet providers from seeing and exploiting your activity. Zero personal information is shared with the carrier, ensuring identities remain private!

Avoid big telecom, travel overseas, and keep on hand for an emergency backup! Set up takes only a few minutes.